Without comment, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a petition in Alto v. Jewell, a tribal disenrollment case from California. The action marks the second time this year that the justices have refused to get involved in the controversy.

1910 "Indian" Frank Trask

The hands-off approach from the nation's highest court stands in contrast to the growing concern about tens of thousands of people who have lost their tribal citizenship across Indian Country. More and more prominent voices, including Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills (Oglala Sioux), Washington State Sen. John McCoy (Tulalip) and Arkansas Law School Dean Stacy Leeds (Cherokee), have joined the #StopDisenrollment campaign to draw attention to what has been called an epidemic.

The efforts are slowly paying off after years of inaction. In one notable example, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, during the final months of the Obama administration, questioned the ouster of more than 300 people from the Nooksack Tribe.

The BIA and other federal agencies have since withheld an estimated $14 million for health, housing and other programs on the reservation in Washington. The tribe is now suing the new Trump administration in hopes of securing the funds, ensuring that the dispute, which has drawn consistent media coverage, will continue to gain attention.

Not everyone has been so fortunate, though. Dozens of people who were ousted by the San Pasqual Band of Mission Indians and the Pala Band of Mission Indians turned to the BIA for help but were ultimately unable to prevent their removals from the two tribes, both based in southern California.
In the Alto case, the one denied by the Supreme Court on Monday, the BIA actually took part in the removal of former citizens of the San Pasqual Band under a provision in the tribe's constitution. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in an unpublished decision last September, said the BIA acted lawfully when it determined that Marcus Alto Sr. had been incorrectly enrolled.

In the Aguayo case, the one denied by the Supreme Court in January, the BIA refused to get involved because the Pala Band changed its laws to keep the agency out of citizenship matters. The 9th Circuit sided with the agency, ensuring that the descendants of Margarita Britten will remain off the rolls.

Friday, February 24, 2017

The Colville Tribes of Washington are purchasing life insurance for all 9,500 members.

The insurance will help pay for burials, ceremonies and memorials for deceased members, the tribe said in a press release. The coverage is being acquired through Symetra.

"The tribes have signed up for wake and death benefits for all of the members," the press release stated. "The beneficiary will be the Colville Confederated Tribes and it will cover all tribal members, including unforeseen deaths that are usually not covered by insurances."

According to the tribe, about 88 members die every year. So far in 2016, 25 people have died.

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

In August 2015, Guest Blogger Free Range Indian wrote a piece on the lands owned by Natives disenrolled from their tribes and what is in store. Tomorrow, there is a meeting scheduled to "explain" how the land buy back program will work for the Hunter Allotment. DO we lose our land to a corrupt tribe? Will Pechanga dig up the graves of our ancestors?

HUNTER LANE gone?

Interesting that The Department of Interior found so many (not me) to notify them of the meeting, yet COULD NOT FIND a single one of us to discuss Pechanga cheating us out of our water rights!

We've owned ours for over 120 years. Some new adopted tribal council members decide we should no longer have the land of our ancestors and what??, we should MOVE? Bullshit. That would be placing a LOT of people in danger.

Here's Free Range Indian's post again:

The NEXT ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

It is just a matter of time before the BIA is confronted with the next elephant in the room. It is not just a matter of disenrollment. It now becomes a realty matter. How many disenrolled Indians are carried on the rolls of the Office of Special Trust? How many of the disenrolled have land interests in trust land?

What will happen to the land of the disenrollees?

Are the disenrollees Indian or not? If they are Indian and eligible to have their lands to be held in trust then which rule is the BIA using to make this determination. If the BIA determines that a disenrollee is not Indian, does this mean that the disenrollee’s land automatically becomes fee land and subject to taxation?

The BIA already went through the nightmare of the Cobell Settlement Case. Do you think the BIA is prepared for the next nightmare?

Tribes now have first right to acquire minor interests in allotments and also to acquire fee lands because of tax default. In a twist of laws and regulations it gives tribes the right of eminent domain. Eminent Domain gives tribes the right to condemn and take property away from individuals if the tribe feels that property is necessary for the benefit of the tribe. OP: This will lead to bloodletting.

Would tribes really go so far as to take away people’s property? It didn’t take long for many of the tribes to evict disenrollees from their homes and assigned lands so it can be predicted that as long as the BIA plays along, the disenrollees can expect another round of their heritage disappearing before their very eyes.

It is my understanding that Robert Eben, former Superintendent of the Southern Californian Agency, BIA, was already working with tribal leaders to develop the authority to condemn the lands of the disenrollees. A Freedom of Information request on the topic of eminent domain to the BIA should be very revealing. They were working to define and give the authority and right to tribes to exercise the power of Eminent Domain.

Land that is in fee title (Such as owned by Pechanga Chairman Macarro) is not under the jurisdiction of the BIA and not of the tribe. Any attempt to take fee lands could possibly be interpreted as “Adverse Condemnation”. If there is anything that shakes the core of State and Local government it is the challenge in court of Adverse Condemnation. Governments almost always lose in these matters and it is an area of law where the tribes will not be able to scream “sovereign immunity”. If the United States, States and Local governments can be sued for Adverse Condemnation I do not believe the courts will be sympathetic to tribes and grant them a higher degree of power than that of the United States.

So which is it? Are the disenrollees Indian or not? If they are Indian, how does the BIA reach this conclusion and how are they able to carry the disenrollees on the rolls of the Office of Special Trust. If they are Indian then aren’t they entitled to the full protection of the United States? Is the United States obligated to protect the disenrollees from any further assault from the tribes and have their lands protected and their status as Indian persons protected as well?

So if the United States via the BIA is assisting the tribes in developing the “proper” authority to exercise the power of eminent domain, is the United States also obligated to protect the rights of the very same ones they are advising tribes on ways of taking away lands of the disenrollees?
It is ethnic cleansing at its finest degree. It is the BIA working to provide a way for tribes to purge themselves of the disenrollees and to consolidate the lands of the reservations. It truly is the next elephant in the room.

Friday, February 17, 2017

But he doesn't TELL ALL OF IT in the Sacramento BEE. Like, how did a non member (after disenrollment) cemetery become "tribal land". Lots of questions still.

After 58 years of struggle, Wilton Rancheria is no longer a landless tribe. The placing of 36 acres of land in Elk Grove into federal trust is a testament to the persistence and courage of our members.And it obscures the fact that this project not only means self-sufficiency and opportunity for the tribe, but jobs, growth and lasting benefits for Elk Grove and the Sacramento region. We care about the community because we are part of it. The vast majority of our 700 members live in Sacramento County; many of them are longtime Elk Grove residents.

Shorty after Wilton Rancheria received federal recognition many of Ione Tribal members from Amador County relinquished their membership from the Ione Band in order to enroll in the Wilton tribe. These Ione members now Wilton Rancheria members are Amy Dutschke family members. Amy Dutschke is the Pacific Regional Superintendent of the Bureau of Indian affairs who is fast tracking the Wilton Tribes fee-to-trust application. These members want a Casino, that why they switched tribes because Wilton's Casino proposal was moving quickly.

Ms. Dutschke's family voted to disenroll our families allowing them to move into leadership at the Wilton Tribe.

It's NOT a done deal people...lots of questions that should be asked and answered.

This is an action to compel the defendants to fully fund contracts awarded to
the Tribe under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, Public Law 93-
638. Defendants have a non-discretionary duty owed to the Tribe to provide required
funding for the awarded contracts and have failed and refused to perform those duties.

2. This is also an action for a declaration by this Court that the Nooksack Tribal
Council was at all times duly and validly elected pursuant to the Tribe’s Constitution and ByLaws
and the opinions of the Nooksack Tribal Court, and possessed a quorum under
Nooksack law to conduct Tribal business; and that the current Nooksack Tribal Council was
duly and validly elected pursuant to the Tribe’s Constitution and must be recognized by the
defendants as the governing body of the Nooksack Indian Tribe.
\

3. Finally, this is an action to compel the defendants to cease and desist in their
arbitrary and capricious refusal to recognize the Nooksack Tribal Council as the governing
body of the Nooksack Tribe, to take all necessary steps to withdraw the erroneous, arbitraryand capricious determination of former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Lawrence
Roberts that the Tribe lacks a quorum to conduct tribal business, and to notify all agencies
and persons with whom Mr. Roberts’ determination was shared that the determination was
erroneous and without force or effect.

We've seen what activism can do with the recent visual arts advocacy program in the #stopdisenrollment movement.

NOW, we need to keep the pressure on with...REAL political action.
Take ACTION by signing this petition requesting the Senate Indian Affairs Committee hold field hearings into violations of the INDIAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACT. Computer activism is very easy.....

Monday, February 13, 2017

A U.S. federal judge denied a request by Native American tribes seeking a halt to construction of the final link in the Dakota Access Pipeline on Monday, the controversial project that has sparked months of protests from tribal activists seeking to halt the 1,170-mile line.

Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., at a hearing, rejected the request from the Standing Rock Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, who had argued that the project will prevent them from practicing religious ceremonies at a lake they say is surrounded by sacred ground.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last week granted a final easement to Energy Transfer Partners LP , the company building the $3.8-billion Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), after President Donald Trump issued an order to advance the pipeline days after he took office in January.

Lawyers for the Cheyenne River Sioux and the Standing Rock Sioux wanted Judge Boasberg to block construction with a temporary restraining order.

"We are contending that the waters of Lake Oahe are sacred to Cheyenne River and all of its members, and that the very presence of a pipeline, not only construction but possible oil flow through that pipeline, would obstruct the free exercise of our religious practices," Matthew Vogel, a legislative associate for the Cheyenne River Sioux, told reporters in a conference call ahead of the hearing.

Friday, February 10, 2017

The court said the states were likely to succeed in their due process claim, noting that the due process protections provided under the Constitution apply not only to citizens, but to all “aliens” in the country, as well as “certain aliens attempting to re-enter the United States after traveling abroad.”

The 9th Circuit has RULED many times that American Indians have no such due process rights in the United States. So immigrants get rights that are denied to American Indian citizens of the United States.

There are many tribes that simply disenroll their people without due process and the 9th Circuit refuses to recognize their claims. DO TRIBAL RIGHTS TRUMP Due Process? Or does the media only care about immigrants and not Natives?Contributor Paul Johnson wrote about the lack of Civil Rights protections here and there is a story about a judge who said due process isn't required hereThe STUDENTS of WASHINGTON STATE and some foreign nationals were INCONVENIENCED for 90 days with Trumps Travel Ban...but THOUSANDS of Native American's due process rights didn't matter to the 9th Circuit when corrupt tribal governments are stripping citizenship from Tribal Citizens. And the Federal Government via the BIA, removes our Federal recognition as Indians from our first ancestor to our future descendants.....without due process.Remember when the 9th Circuit RULED against Indian children being protected by the ICWA? Maybe if they claimed they were Muslim? Or worked for Microsoft...

Although bittersweet for many as some elders have passed including our friend Luwana Quitiquit, during the tribe's disenrollment from Nov 2008 to January 28, 2017

Luwana Quitiquit

Native America should be proud of the tribal members who chose to do the right thing. It is now about healing and move the tribe forward. Chairman Eddie Crandell, who once had been disqualified from running by the disgraceful Tracy Avila....you are a TRUE LEADER in Indian Country...

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will grant the final easement needed to finish the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, according to a court filing Tuesday.

The line had been delayed for several months after protests from Native American tribes and climate activists. The $3.8 billion line, which is being built by Energy Transfer Partners (ETP.N), needed a final permit to tunnel under Lake Oahe, a reservoir that is part of the Missouri River.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe, whose reservation is adjacent to the line's route, has said they will fight the decision. The Army Corps had previously stated that they would undertake further environmental review of the project. The tribe was not immediately available for comment.

The 1,170-mile (1,885 km) line will bring crude oil from North Dakota's Bakken shale region to Patoka, Illinois, and from there connect to the Gulf of Mexico, where many U.S. refineries are located. The tribe had fought the line for months, fearing contamination of their drinking water and damage to sacred sites on their land.

Numerous activists who have been protesting in North Dakota have vowed to stay, although the primary protest camp is located on a flood plain on Army Corps land and is in the process of being cleared.

Their protests, along with those of climate activists, resulted in the Obama administration's decision to delay a final permit that would allow construction under the Missouri River.

"The discord we have seen regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline doesn’t serve the tribe, the company, the Corps or any of the other stakeholders involved. Now, we all need to work together to ensure people and communities rebuild trust and peacefully resolve their differences," said John Hoeven, Republican senator from North Dakota, in a statement.

Now it appears, the Tribe was looking at criminal charges for "stealing" electricity from the "community building". Which others were using heat and cook their food, all without threats of police interference. Still to be determined if they will charge the Rabangs.

They were without power for almost 40 hours and are raising a grandson who has asthma and needs to be hooked up to an electric asthma machine, so they plugged into the community building which was built for the people.

Why is it that when you adopt someone in the tribe, like Bob Kelly, they TURN on the people? Remember when tribes said they would support their people if they were rewarded in gaming and casino rights?

Is it time to END the Tribal Casino monopoly? The continued persecution of the Nooksack 306 should make us think so

Monday, February 6, 2017

Which way do you think it will go? Honor the Treaties...? Or Honor the Campaign financers?

ABC NEWS:

A decision “may occur by the end of the week,” said Department of Justice attorney Matt Marinelli on behalf of the Army Corps of Engineers. If the easement is granted, construction on the controversial oil pipeline would resume. Once the Army Corps review process is complete, a final decision will be made and the Army Corps will notify Congress as required, according to Marinelli.

EARTH JUSTICE says WILL IMMEDIATELY APPEAL:

Jan Hasselman, an attorney with Earthjustice, who represents the Standing Rock Sioux, said the tribe will challenge the U.S. government in court if the Army grants the easement…

“Our position is the tribe’s treaty rights and the law require the full (Environmental Impact Study) process that the government initiated in December. Issuing the easement without that process will be a serious violation of the law,” Hasselman told Reuters.

The camp once had as many as 10,000 protesters but the harsh winter and repeated requests by the Standing Rock Sioux that protesters vacate has reduced the populations to a few hundred. As I noted Friday, 74 protesters trying to set up a new camp on land owned by the development company were arrested last week. Protest leader Chase Iron Eyes has been charged with inciting a riot, which is a felony that could result in up to 5 years in jail.

Stand UP for California filed suit against the city of Elk Grove for a bit of....underhandedness:

n an unusual move, the Elk Grove City Clerk amended the agenda and gave notice that it will hold a closed session as part of the meeting.

The notice, which was given yesterday morning, lists the lawsuit filed by Stand Up For California against the city. That lawsuit, case number 34-2016-80002493, was filed in Sacramento Superior Court on November 23, 2016.

Filed as a complaint under the California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, the suit claims that the City is improperly using the 2001 environmental impact report (EIR) conducted for the shopping center. The suit says the City used the 2001 EIR so that it could speed the process for development of the casino, which included the removal of the development agreement encumbering the title.

Before the land can be placed in Federal trust, which is required before ground breaking, the parcel must be free of encumbrances such as the development agreement under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act 25, U.S.C. 2703(4).

Removing the development agreement without considering the environmental impacts is a violation of CEQA the complaint contents. Additionally, the suit claims the City illegally recorded the effective date of the ordinance so as to "thwart the right reserved to the voters of Elk Grove in the California Constitution to referend the ordinance approving the Amendment before that ordinance is given effect."

FOLLOWING THE RULES wasn't on the TOP of the City Council's list? NO WONDER they don't care about the tribes' corrupt practices

The daughter of a Hemet woman who went missing a week ago and whose traveling companion was found dead on the Soboba Indian Reservation said Monday she fears her mother was a witness to murder and suffered dire consequences.

Kathleen Ann Haney, 56, was last seen on the night of Jan. 22, when she drove her daughter’s friend, 27-year-old Kyle Nathan Cagey of Pala, to the Soboba Casino. JUST last week, MiltonTrujillo allegedly gunned down an acquaintance, 43-year-old Carolyn Cagey, with a pistol in an open lot in the 2900 block of West Pala Mission Road about 3 a.m. Monday. Cagey died at the scene, Lt. Kenn Nelson said.

Haney’s van was discovered the following day, burning on the reservation. Cagey’s remains were found a day later in a riverbed east of Castille Canyon. He had been murdered, though Riverside County sheriff’s officials declined to disclose how.

“I think my mother was collateral damage because she was a witness to whatever happened to him,” Michelle Haney told KABC7. “My mother would have never given a ride to someone if she knew they were dangerous.”

Sheriff’s Sgt. Walter Mendez said last week Kathleen Haney was considered a “missing at-risk person,” and that detectives had turned up no clues regarding her whereabouts.

Michelle Haney said Cagey and her mother had gone to the casino so that he could obtain money from a relative, but that person was apparently a no- show.

According to Michelle Haney, investigators have assured her they’re following up leads, but they’re no longer looking for her mother on the reservation.

Sunday, February 5, 2017

There have literally been hundreds of investigations, and multiple attempts to terminate the agency. The truth is that the federal government has a vested interest in keeping the BIA alive. They deal with Indians who are a black mark on the history of American justice, and the tribal leaders do not protest overmuch. They have grown accustomed to the way business is done at the BIA, and know that a favorable decision on issues of import is only a bribe away.

Friday, February 3, 2017

The Bureau of Indian Affairs today responded to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's request for BIA law enforcement support and will assist them in closing the protest camps within the Standing Rock Reservation boundary.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe previously passed a tribal resolution asking the BIA for the assistance of its officers to support and ensure the safety of the tribe's camp-closing operation.

North Dakota Governor Burgum, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe leadership, local law enforcement, and local landowners have all warned the public and those still camped of the dangerous spring flooding expected due to the heavy amount of snowfall the state received this winter.

The closing of the camps is a matter of public health and safety and working together at this time will allow for the safe removal of waste and debris that will impact the local environment and protection of those camped.”

We are getting reports that after yesterday's federal hearing in San Francisco, the disenrollment of some Elem Colony members, initiated by a corrupt tribal council which we discussed HERE and and with BIA employee interference HERE...has been halted. They are due BACK in court on March 16.

Report from FB:However, the first victory for our families is that the Judge got El-President Garcia to state under oath that the letter notification of Dis-enrollment to our members was illegally sent out as he didn't have a prior approved Disenrollment Ordinance! ( In other words"My Bad!)

Did the move to keep paying Pechanga Chairman Mark Macarro's WIFE huge lobbying fees go before the tribe? Five years of expensive failures on the Pechanga Water Rights bill SHOULD have sent the tribe looking elsewhere. Read the links..

Thursday, February 2, 2017

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault is criticizing Dakota Access oil pipeline opponents who set up a camp on private land.
Archambault says the move undermines the tribe's efforts to make a legitimate case against the pipeline, which the tribe says threatens its drinking water.
Authorities arrested 74 protesters after they set up teepees Wednesday on land owned by the pipeline developer. Protesters said they were peacefully assembling on land they believe rightfully belongs to American Indians.
The site is near the main protest camp that has existed for months on federal land, and still is home to several hundred protesters.

Archambault has called on that camp to disband in recent weeks, saying "the fight is no longer here, but in the halls and courts of the federal government."
___
9:30 a.m.
An American Indian activist who unsuccessfully ran for Congress last fall is among 74 Dakota Access pipeline opponents who were arrested in North Dakota after setting up camp on private land.
Formal charges are pending against Chase Iron Eyes, who's been helping

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Call your Congressperson and VOICE YOUR OPINIONToday, Senator John Hoeven issued a statement declaring that the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army had directed the Army Corps to proceed with the final easement necessary to complete the proposed route of the Dakota Access Pipeline. While this news is disappointing, it is unfortunately not surprising. It is also not a formal issuance of the easement—it is notification that the easement is imminent. The Corps still must take into consideration the various factors mentioned in the Presidential Memorandum, notify Congress, and actually grant the easement.If and when the easement is granted, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe will vigorously pursue legal action. We have to this date received no formal notice that the EIS has been suspended or withdrawn. To abandon the EIS would amount to a wholly unexplained and arbitrary change based on the President’s personal views and, potentially, personal investments. Furthermore, the Army Corps lacks statutory authority to simply stop the preparation of the EIS and issue the easement. We stand ready to fight this battle against corporate interest superseding government procedure and the health and wellbeing of millions of Americans.

Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump's FIRST Supreme Court nominee is for religious liberty, for ALL. In addition to his defense of Hobby Lobby’s religious liberty claim, Gorsuch wrote the majority opinion in a little-known but significant religious liberty case.

In Yellowbear v. Lampert (2014), Gorsuch sided with the plaintiff, Andrew Yellowbear, a prisoner of Native American descent who sued the Wyoming Department of Corrections for preventing him access to a sweat lodge, which he argued was part of his faith. Gorsuch ruled that the Department of Correction violated Yellowbear’s religious rights.

The acting secretary of the Army has ordered the Army Corps of Engineers to allow construction of the Dakota Access pipeline under a Missouri River reservoir, a North Dakota senator said, the latest twist in the months-long legal battle over the $3.8 billion project.

The Standing Rock Sioux, whose opposition to the project attracted the support of thousands of protesters from around the country to North Dakota, immediately vowed to return to court to stop it.

Sen. John Hoeven announced late Tuesday that Robert Speer directed the Army Corps of Engineers to "proceed" with an easement necessary to complete the pipeline. Hoeven said he also discussed Speer's order with Vice President Mike Pence, just a week after President Donald Trump signed an executive order signaling his support for the project.